Why kids are big business

CONTRARY to the ­impression a frenzied few hours of transfer activity whipped up yesterday, ­eyebrows have long since been raised and heads scratched at mind-boggling transfer fees paid by ­England’s elite for the ­country’s brightest talent.

Wayne Harrison cost a British-record £250,000 when Joe Fagan signed him for Liverpool in 1985 []

When Wayne Harrison moved from Oldham to Liverpool in 1985 at 17, after two first-team games in the old Second Division – and to the disappointment of a cluster of other suitors – £250,000 was a British record for a teenager.

Some 26 years on and, after being catapulted into another footballing stratosphere, Phil Jones and Jordan Henderson can now expect to receive wages in just one month equal to the size of the fee that once startled the world.

Back in the Eighties and even before then, the clamour to capture English football’s next big thing was understandable, given foreign imports were few and far between and the game had not yet expanded its boundaries to go global.

Yet Manchester United’s desire to pay £16.5million for a 19-year-old centre-half in Jones, rather than heading to France for a cheaper alternative, then Liverpool’s willingness to stump up just as much to Sunderland for Henderson instead of plundering an up-and-coming talent from La Liga for half the price, serves to illustrate the continued importance of English-born players.

We’re struggling to find players who are better than what we’ve got – unless you pay massive money

Harry Redknapp

England has got talent. We just did not realise it was so expensive.

The quota system introduced by the Premier League last season – dictating that clubs must have eight homegrown players in their 25-man squads – is one reason for the fascination. The fixation, however, runs deeper, with the perceived loyalty that buying English brings another incentive. Carlos Tevez’s antics at Manchester City and the ‘will he, won’t he’ saga over his future underlines the inherent dangers of laying down vast amounts of money for players who have no ties with this country and will think nothing about agitating for a lucrative pit stop elsewhere.

In contrast, it is noticeable that Wayne Rooney’s fit of pique at Manchester United in October was followed with peace being declared, while Chelsea skipper John Terry’s dalliance with City two summers ago also came to nothing. The overriding factor swaying clubs’ transfer plans, however, is the notion that, in the high-octane, energy-sapping Premier League, the most successful teams need to retain an English heartbeat.

The Arsenal title-winning sides which included Tony Adams and Steve Bould may have been able to pass on their values to the likes of Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira but, when the link is two steps removed, the qualities needed to succeed become lost in translation. Sir Alex Ferguson’s acquisition of Jones yesterday follows on from the signing of £10m Chris Smalling in January 2010, making England Under-21s’ centre-back pairing the ready-made heirs to Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.

The continued presence of Rooney in attack reveals that United will retain an English spine for years to come, despite the retirements of Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, and ensures that a much-needed link to supporters remains in place. “Phil Jones is a good, young, English player,” tweeted Rooney yesterday from his holiday bolt-hole in Barbados. “One of the toughest defenders I played against last season. Can play midfield, too.”

For Ferguson, this is also about building yet another dominant team; a youthful one at that, with David de Gea and Ashley Young set to follow, joining Javier Hernandez, the Da Silva twins, Nani and Antonio Valencia.

The rest of the Premier League might well have shuddered with the news that Jones was being swept into Carrington yesterday before signing a five-year deal.

Liverpool had hoped to lure him and could have offered first-team football sooner, yet Jones’s decision and Young’s eagerness to join him at Old Trafford shows how much work is still to be done at Anfield.

The £16m outlay on Henderson follows hard on the heels of the £35m handed over to Newcastle for Andy Carroll in January. It represents a £51m gamble on two players, who have only three senior England caps and one good season in the top flight between them.

If Liverpool have paid over the odds, then it is partly because they have to blow rivals out of the water in order to get their man. When they stand toe-to-toe, as in Jones’s case, they come out second best.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp is feeling the same. He said: “We’re struggling to find players who are better than what we’ve got – unless you pay massive money.”

Of course, the glut of injuries that befell Harrison all those years ago and prevented him from ever fulfilling his potential represents the flipside to the risks these clubs are taking. After 23 football-related operations, he retired at 22 having never played a senior game for Liverpool.

It remains a cautionary tale, but it will not stop clubs seeking out the ‘next big thing’.